Naomi Osaka teams up with Levi’s for Capsule Collection

Tennis champion and activist Naomi Osaka has launched a limited-edition womenswear line with famed denim brand Levi’s. The capsule collection, which launched on Tuesday, features four styles made of a combination of upcycled and vintage denim pieces, designed to pay homage to Osaka’s Japanese heritage.

Items include a kimono with matching denim obi belt and two styles of shorts: a vintage 501 jean short finished with crystal fringe, and a long short with lace-up detailing. The collection is complete with a denim bustier made from reworked Levi’s Trucker jackets.  As part of the campaign, the four-time Grand Slam champion can be found modelling the denim pieces with a sporty chic vibe that speaks to Osaka’s personal style. In the promotional video, she is joined by her sister Mari Osaka, who is also a professional tennis player.

While, most recently, Osaka represented Japan at the 2020 Olympic Games, she revealed in the promotional video that she has long had a passion for fashion. “When we were little, me and my little sister would take car rides and drive for hours and hours on end and we would have little fashion design battles and have my dad pick the winner so it’s always been a thing for us growing up,” she said in the promotional video for the collection.

The capsule collection follows the Levi’s 2021 ‘Beauty of Becoming’ campaign where Osaka was spotlighted among other global changemakers including Willow and Jaden Smith, actress and model Leyna Bloom, and celebrity stylist Karla Welch, among others. The star has equally collaborated on collections with Nike and Adeam, and was featured in Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer ads.

On the Levi’s website, they stated why the company made the decision to do the collaboration with Osaka:

Naomi Osaka is widely acknowledged as the people’s champion. And though her power and domination on the tennis court is one part of what inspires her legion of fans, it’s also her grace, fearlessness, and authenticity, both during a match and in her everyday life. As a voice for her generation, Naomi speaks to the power of staying true to yourself, and for standing up for what you believe in.

In her style, Naomi maintains that same note of grace, fearlessness, and authenticity. But she also likes to have fun. She embraces the playfulness of the Levi’s 501, and the way it functions as the perfect canvas for showing off a little personality. Worn with pops of color and her favorite sneakers, Naomi shows that the people’s champion also has a very relatable and very down-to-earth sense of personal style.

The Levi’s x Naomi Osaka collaboration will be available in select Levi’s stores and on the brand’s app. The collection will retail for $150-$380.

—
Photo Credit: Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com